1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to electrical contacts and, more particularly, to female electrical contacts of the type that fit over a male electrode which may be affixed to a patient's skin for picking up electrical impulse from the patient.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
In the treatment of a patient, it is frequently desirable to record electrical impulses at various body locations and frequently, male electrodes are affixed to various locations on the patient's body and female electrode connectors are releasably connected therewith for picking up the electrical impulse received by the male electrode for communication to an electrical meter or graph. It is important that the connection between the male and female electrodes are secure once the connection is made and it is desirable that such female connectors be relatively easily disconnected from the male electrode.
Many different meters, such as electrocardiographs, are equipped with different styles of connectors, but most employ a male stem of rather standard construction which incorporates an enlarged-in-diameter button over which the female connector fits to be releasably retained on the male connector. In many instances, when the patient's skin is not unduly sensitive, the female connector merely snaps over the button formed on the male connector stem and is retained thereon by means of a retention spring incorporated in the female connector for resiliently flexing to fit over the button and to be yielding urged radially inwardly beneath the button head to releasably hold the female connector in engagement with the male stem. Connectors of this type are frequently referred to as snap connectors and, while serving the purpose of releasably maintaining electrical connection, suffer the shortcoming that they are relatively expensive to manufacture in that they require assembly of the retention spring within the female connector thus adding to the expense of manufacture and to the likelihood of faulty workmanship which may result in early failure or even inoperability. Furthermore, the juncture points and aperture holes frequently required in the construction of female connectors of this type constitute ideal locations for initiation and maintenance of bacterial growth. Moreover, such connectors are frequently constructed, at least in part, of metal and repeated sterilization thereof and operation in a moist atmosphere frequently results in corrosion which builds up a resistance to electrical conduction, thus detracting from the accuracy of the readout and interfering with smooth connection and disconnection from the male stem and eventually leading to mechanical failure. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a female connector which avoids the use of components requiring assembly and forming apertures and juncture points therein and to further provide a female connector that avoids the use of metal components which are subject to corrosion.
In instances, such as post-operative or burn cases, where the patient's skin is unduly sensitive to pain, female connectors providing for frictional operation of a retention spring cannot be employed since the patient cannot tolerate the pain associated with pressing on his skin to make the mechanical connection between the male and female electrodes and, similarly, cannot tolerate the pain associated with pulling on the female connector to disengage the releasable spring frictionally held beneath the male stem button. In these cases, squeeze type female connectors employing ring biased jaws openable by squeezing together projecting handles, are required for different cases and different applications. Not only is the expense of stocking both snap type and squeeze type connectors prohibitive, but many times when squeeze type connectors are required for a test, only snap type connectors are available. Consequently, it is an object of this invention to provide a female connector which is self biased to a closed, engaged position and can be snapped onto and off a male stem and which also incorporates projecting finger grasp ears which may be squeezed by an operator to release the female connector from the male stem without pulling axially on such male stem.